Hello one and all, welcome back to Wupdates! If you had a fun time last year following along with my geographical and gastrointestinal adventures in East Africa, you may be excited to know that I have recently relocated to the small city of Estelí, Nicaragua to work for Global Brigades for a year.
DISCLAIM OR DIE: All opinions are my own and do not represent the views of Global Brigades Association.
So why am I here? I first got involved with Global Brigades my sophomore year, when I went on a medical brigade to Honduras. The next summer I interned with them for a month in Ghana. Then I went off and did some other fun things in East Africa, but when the time for my job search came I decided I wanted to get back involved! So now I’m working for them until next August.
Global Brigades is the largest student-led international development organization. They work in Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, and Ghana across a broad swath of development programs: medical and dental clinics, microfinance, business, water, engineering, environmental, public health, and human rights. They have more than 8,000 volunteers a year and are growing rapidly. Their work revolves around a “holistic model,” in which several different programs are implemented in communities that want them.
The entire goal of GB is to empower communities to pursue their own development. They only work in communities that want their programs, and they implement these programs with the full participation of community members and local specialists. Eventually they transition out of the communities. I think it’s a pretty revolutionary way to envision service work, especially for a generation often derided for its interest in “voluntourism.”
My job is to be a chapter advisor. I’ve been assigned to a region of the US – half of southern California – and I’m in charge of all the college chapters in that region (about 600 volunteers). I help them prepare for their 7-10 day brigade experience by working out dates, flight logistics, fundraising assistance, troubleshooting anything that comes up, and trying to expand our presence across campuses. It’s an office job. As long as we are on top of our advising duties, we can work in any other area of GB's programming that needs help. We can also go on two brigades a year. There are 14 advisors and we are all living together in a house in Estelí. Back in the US, we had a week of training coupled with our annual student leadership conference at BU, and then we flew here last Tuesday. We are all settled in now and have had our first week of work. We’ll be officially done with training after tomorrow and fully transitioned into our new jobs!
In addition to the 14 chapter advisors, there are 4 senior advisors. They all had our positions last year and are now our supervisors, among other things. They share a house three blocks away from us. There’s also the travel team: four Nicaraguans who work in our office as travel agents. There are far more staff than this, but these are the people I'll be interacting with the most. Our office is a 10 to 15 minute walk from our house. Every day we work from 8-4. I’ve been waking up at 6 to go running. Unfortunately Estelí is not the best place to run: there is traffic and exhaust and wobbly streets, plus annoying cat-callers. But I am making it work and may start CROSSFIT soon. Tribe.
I love our group. Everyone gets along well. We’ve had a good time food shopping an insane amount, cooking new things (for me, that would be chicken), learning to do our jobs, singing at night, and exploring the city. We are ringed by sharp green mountains on all sides. At this altitude – about 2,600 feet – the temperature is much cooler than the rest of the tropical country. There are murals everywhere. There is easy access to mangos, avocados, bananas, and all my other favorite tropical foods. There is no hot water (in fact, often no water at all…) but you win some, you lose some! This year, I’ll try to write as often as I can to keep all you friends and family up to date with any questions you’ve got about what I am doing. It’s going to be a very busy year, and I’m looking forward to it!
DISCLAIM OR DIE: All opinions are my own and do not represent the views of Global Brigades Association.
So why am I here? I first got involved with Global Brigades my sophomore year, when I went on a medical brigade to Honduras. The next summer I interned with them for a month in Ghana. Then I went off and did some other fun things in East Africa, but when the time for my job search came I decided I wanted to get back involved! So now I’m working for them until next August.
Global Brigades is the largest student-led international development organization. They work in Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, and Ghana across a broad swath of development programs: medical and dental clinics, microfinance, business, water, engineering, environmental, public health, and human rights. They have more than 8,000 volunteers a year and are growing rapidly. Their work revolves around a “holistic model,” in which several different programs are implemented in communities that want them.
The entire goal of GB is to empower communities to pursue their own development. They only work in communities that want their programs, and they implement these programs with the full participation of community members and local specialists. Eventually they transition out of the communities. I think it’s a pretty revolutionary way to envision service work, especially for a generation often derided for its interest in “voluntourism.”
My job is to be a chapter advisor. I’ve been assigned to a region of the US – half of southern California – and I’m in charge of all the college chapters in that region (about 600 volunteers). I help them prepare for their 7-10 day brigade experience by working out dates, flight logistics, fundraising assistance, troubleshooting anything that comes up, and trying to expand our presence across campuses. It’s an office job. As long as we are on top of our advising duties, we can work in any other area of GB's programming that needs help. We can also go on two brigades a year. There are 14 advisors and we are all living together in a house in Estelí. Back in the US, we had a week of training coupled with our annual student leadership conference at BU, and then we flew here last Tuesday. We are all settled in now and have had our first week of work. We’ll be officially done with training after tomorrow and fully transitioned into our new jobs!
In addition to the 14 chapter advisors, there are 4 senior advisors. They all had our positions last year and are now our supervisors, among other things. They share a house three blocks away from us. There’s also the travel team: four Nicaraguans who work in our office as travel agents. There are far more staff than this, but these are the people I'll be interacting with the most. Our office is a 10 to 15 minute walk from our house. Every day we work from 8-4. I’ve been waking up at 6 to go running. Unfortunately Estelí is not the best place to run: there is traffic and exhaust and wobbly streets, plus annoying cat-callers. But I am making it work and may start CROSSFIT soon. Tribe.
I love our group. Everyone gets along well. We’ve had a good time food shopping an insane amount, cooking new things (for me, that would be chicken), learning to do our jobs, singing at night, and exploring the city. We are ringed by sharp green mountains on all sides. At this altitude – about 2,600 feet – the temperature is much cooler than the rest of the tropical country. There are murals everywhere. There is easy access to mangos, avocados, bananas, and all my other favorite tropical foods. There is no hot water (in fact, often no water at all…) but you win some, you lose some! This year, I’ll try to write as often as I can to keep all you friends and family up to date with any questions you’ve got about what I am doing. It’s going to be a very busy year, and I’m looking forward to it!